The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a Lahore resident, Farhan Asif, for allegedly disseminating false information that contributed to recent riots in the UK. The arrest comes over a week after widespread unrest in Southport, UK, followed the fatal stabbing of three young girls.
Investigations revealed that the disinformation, which falsely claimed that the British-born 17-year-old suspect was a Muslim immigrant arriving by boat, originated from the little-known platform Channel3Now. UK broadcaster ITV News identified a Pakistani individual as the source of this misinformation.
Lahore Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Faisal Kamran confirmed that authorities are examining claims made by ITV News and have launched a probe into the matter. The FIA registered an FIR naming Farhan Asif as the individual who allegedly shared the false information on the platform.
The FIR indicates that Asif admitted to providing misleading information to the BBC to shift blame. During a raid at his residence, authorities seized two laptops and a mobile phone. The technical analysis revealed that the Twitter account “Channel3Nownews,” which posted the disinformation, was active and linked to Asif.
Asif confessed to running the “Channel3Nownews” account for sharing national and international news, but claimed he only reposted the tweet from another account, “Bernie.”
The FIR includes charges under Section 9 (glorification of an offense) and Section 10a (cyberterrorism) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016. An application for a 14-day remand was submitted, but the district court granted only one day’s remand. The court has directed the investigating officer to complete the investigation and present Asif in court on August 22.
